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I am truly saddened by this news. I will never forget the awe and thrilled admiration I felt as a twelve year old boy, watching Neil take those first footsteps upon another world. He was a true hero in every sense of the word, not the least because of his quiet unassuming nature and reluctance to succumb to celebrity. He and his peers were (and remain) my idols. They just don't make them like that any more.
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R.I.P.
Order of Kilopi
Order of Kilopi
Our species is lessened by his loss, but enhanced by his achievements.
Best wishes to his family at his parting; his first step showed us we could fly.
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Houston tranquility base here the eagle has landed....
Neil Armstrong
RIP amongst the stars Neil.
Senior Member
Seldom have the words, "there will never be another like him" been appropriate. In this case, they are.
A man of lesser character could have "cashed-in" on the fame and fortune of being the 1st, but that just wasn't Neil.
Rest in Peace my friend.
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When I was a kid, we all wanted to be astronauts. He carried a lot of hopes with him.
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He was an inspiration to all who aspired to go beyond the horizon, to look at what's beyond the visible, to reach out, no matter what discipline and to marvel at it all, without thinking of rewards...
RIP
The impossible often has a kind of integrity the merely improbable lacks. -Douglas Adams
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Buzz speaks.I had truly hoped that on July 20th, 2019, Neil, Mike and I would be standing together to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of our moon landing, as we also anticipated the continued expansion of humanity into space, that our small mission helped make possible. Regrettably, this is not to be. Neil will most certainly be there with us in spirit.
On behalf of the Aldrin family, we extend our deepest condolences to Carol and the entire Armstrong family. I will miss my friend Neil as I know our fellow citizens and people around world will miss this foremost aviation and space pioneer.
May he Rest in Peace, and may his vision for our human destiny in space be his legacy.
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Exactly my thoughts.Originally Posted by R.A.F.
Just how Armstrong ended up as the designated first remains the subject of some debate. Even if it was just the luck of the draw (assignment slots), it would appear that none of the other astronauts had more skill or greater dignity.
It is depressing to think that we have not lived up to the legacy of the NASA pioneers – both the astronaut crews themselves and the vast ground support network. Nevertheless, if humans still exist a thousand years from now, this will be the event from the twentieth century most remembered.
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For every human being that looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that some corner of another world is forever mankind. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. But he was the first, and will remain the foremost in our hearts.
Apologies to William Safire.
Administrator
Maybe Michael Collins said it best:
He was the best, and I will miss him terribly." -- Michael Collins, Apollo 11 command module pilot.
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I can't add anything about Neil himself what others already said. I did give a one minute or so look at tonight's half moon around 8 pm local time, saluting Neil in my mind.
Order of Kilopi
Et tu BAUT? Quantum mutatus ab illo.
Order of Kilopi
I remember the landing, and when I heard about this it hit like a body blow.
We'll be back, and not just with robots. It's taking longer than I like, but there's real change these days. It will happen.
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
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RIP Mr. Armstrong, you inspired so many of us.
On a sad note, half of the comments on our local news site on this story are from Hoax believers and their "NASA IS NAZIS" baloney. I am starting to feel some serious hatred towards conspiracy theorists.
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Difficult to prove, but probably more people were thinking of Armstrong and Aldrin on that day in 1968 than any other two, before or since.
And if I may, Swift, Housman was a better poet than Heinlein, and this is a better epitaph for an explorer:
"Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again."
(Please read 'content' as what is contained, not happiness)
John
Order of Kilopi
RIP Neil. One last step.
Order of Kilopi
Neal was a reluctant, but gracious hero and ambassador. He spoke at my 1st wife's graduation; and stood through the diploma presentation. (My wife broke ranks as she crossed the stage, pausing to hug Neil and whisper to him...something.) What a thrill - that great first step. They gave us such great pride, and hope.
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From the BA's blog post on the subject:
I like that idea.And I wonder… will there someday be a holiday in his honor? In my mind’s eye I can see people lining the streets, watching parades, talking about that day, smiling and laughing… and all the while, through a quartz window in the dome, the crescent Earth will be hanging in the black sky above them.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
And even more so in 1969.Difficult to prove, but probably more people were thinking of Armstrong and Aldrin on that day in 1968 than any other two, before or since.
Moderator
This afternoon I watched my DVD copy of the film The Dish as a tribute to Neil Armstrong. When the film finished and I ejected the DVD, the unit went to the TV station it sits on, which was BBC News 24 and they just happened to be speaking about Neil.
Established Member
I got to thinking about how quickly Neil's death came following that of Sally Ride and I got to wondering if we'd ever seen so many non-work related astronaut deaths in such a short period of time. In crunching the numbers on this site, about when an astronaut died, if you exclude things like the Challenger and Columbia disasters, as well as astronauts killed during training, 2012 leads the way with 4. (Only one of whom predates the shuttle program, BTW.)
1991, 1993, 2001 tie with two each.
From 1967 (when the first non-work related death of an astronaut happened) until 1982, no astronauts died. The next gap was nearly 4 years. (John Swigert of Apollo 13 died on 12/27/82, the next astronaut to die outside of Challenger's crew was Stephen Thorne on 5/24/86.) Since then, we've lost one a year, save for the years already mentioned when we lost 2 and 1988, 1989, 1997, 2000, 2003 (minus the Columbia crew, of course), 2005, and 2011, when no astronauts died.
Given that there's only two Mercury astronauts still alive, seven of the sixteen Gemini astronauts (including those that flew on Mercury) are gone, and there's twenty surviving Apollo astronauts (I can't find a page which enumerates how many shuttle astronauts there have been, only a listing of all astronauts in every US program. Which isn't helpful at all.), I think we can expect to see a spike in the number of astronaut deaths from old age and/or disease, in the very near future. What it looks like we're unlikely to see, is a spike in the number of new astronauts going into space.
(Oh, and three of 2012's astronauts deaths have come since July 1st of this year.)
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Obligatory xkcd comic.
Order of Kilopi
And the 50th percentile line in that comic is pretty much spot on. It makes me so sad.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
Just found out I'm sorta connected to Neil Armstrong. My cousin's wife told me her mom says they're 2nd/3rd cousins.
Et tu BAUT? Quantum mutatus ab illo.
Established Member
That poem also occured to me. You beat me to posting it.
(except that it's "fleecy skies" not "friendly skies" in the second last line.)
Established Member
Among my earliest certain (well, more or less) memories is watching "Kneel" step on the Moon. His passing makes me an unhappy puppy.
The dog, the dog, he's at it again!
Order of Kilopi
It's a sad day when Neil Armstrong died. It will be a sad day when Neil Young dies as well. They are (or were) both wonderful men.
As above, so below
Senior Member
It's simply the "consequence" of astronauts reaching old age. Any "spike" in the number of deaths is to be expected.
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